A Comparison of Paper-Based Tests and Computer-Based Tests in the Emergence of COVID- 19 Era: Evidence by Event-Related Potentials

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eading comprehension is one of the most important sections of the international tests including IELTS or TOFEL. Also, reading comprehension tests employed at schools or university are attempting to determine the comprehension level of the test takers specifically inCorona virus emergence era. Metacognitive strategies are used by test takers in order to gain their intended marks in tests rather than comprehending the text. Thus, it is a tool for readers to increase their decoding skills. This study aimed at exploring the comprehension level of the test takers without the effects of Metacognitive strategies. While there seems to be a deep linkage between the brain and reading comprehension, Event-related potentials (ERPs) as one of the methods of brain activity measuring allows researchers to observe reading-related brain processes and can document neural patterns at the millisecond level. This study aimed at high-lightening the role of computer-based testing through ERP. 10 Iranian IELTS candidates holding the band scores from 6 to 8 participated in this study. The reading comprehension items of a retired version of IELTS were given to the test takers as the paper-version test and as the stimuli in computer-version test format. In this research, mixed method was used. This study aimed at comparing the paper-version and computer-based tests. EEG signals of the participants were recorded during the computer-based version test and ERPs were extracted. Findings showed that computer-version testing can examine the readers’ comprehension level directly.